. >> he's not trying to move the law radically, quickly. i think justice scalia or justice thomas really want to get to the end answer as quickly as possible and make the law conform to what they really understand whereas the chief justice is more incrementalist. >> reporter: conservative court watcher carry severino doesn't believe much will change any time soon. >> certainly this is not a crusading con serbtive court. until we have a shift, i think, in the membership of the court it's impossible to call it a court that leans more to the left or to the right. >> let's bring in joe johns. joe, could this term possibly be as important as the last one? that's hard to imagine. >> reporter: carol, it certainly has that potential. just the question of revisiting race based preferences in university admissions. this is an issue they decided just a few years ago. now they're back. the difference is the court's been reconstituted. now the swing vote is no longer one justice. it's another justice. there are other issues certainly that could be big.